News

18 July 2010

 

Jordan Valley and Nikon win ‘Best of West’ Awards

X-ray metrology tool maker Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd (JVS) of Migdal Ha’emek, Israel and Nikon Corp Inc of Tokyo, Japan (whose Nikon Precision subsidiary provides photolithography systems) were the winners of the ‘SEMICON Best of West’ award at last week’s SEMICON West 2010 exhibition in San Francisco, based on the products' financial impact on the industry, engineering or scientific achievement, and/or societal impact.

Jordan Valley Semiconductors’ winning product is the JVX7200 SiGe metrology tool, which combines high-resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and x-ray reflectivity (XRR) channels to provide composition, thickness, strain, relaxation characterization and metrology for epitaxial layers such as silicon germanium (SiGe) and silicon carbide (SiC), which are required for strained silicon processes. Also, the XRR channel can provide information on other thin-films, such as those found in high-k gate stacks. The tool is capable of providing rapid, in-line measurements and analysis on both blanket and product wafers.

“Long ago, we had the vision to see the importance of the strained silicon process,” says CEO Isaac Mazor. “Our engineers were able to bridge the metrology gap for this process by building the most advanced platform for the most advanced technology available today.” 

Nikon’s award-winning product is the NSR-S620D ultra-high-productivity immersion scanner, which incorporates the Streamlign platform and a 1.35 numerical aperture lens to meet the aggressive demands of double-patterned lithography at 32nm, with extendibility to 22nm applications. The S620D targets 200 wafers per hour, maximizes yield with 2nm overlay and superior CDU (critical dimension uniformity), and enables rapid installation.

The selection of finalists was made by a panel of judges representing a broad spectrum of the microelectronics industry.

See related items:

Jordan Valley Semiconductors posts 10% year-to-year growth

Search: SEMICON West

Visit: www.semiconwest.org/bestofwest

Visit: www.jvsemi.com

Visit: www.nikonprecision.com